


Father

by therune



Series: Tales of Kingsman [2]
Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-02
Updated: 2015-05-02
Packaged: 2018-03-28 18:01:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3864430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therune/pseuds/therune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>written for the kinkmeme:<br/>Arthur, Merlin, Galahad, betrayal - They were both Arthur's recruits, his prize pupils. Their newer ideas were indulged with paternal condescension. He was their most important father figure. Betrayal runs deep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Father

V-Day is over, the sun rises and there is a new morning.  
Merlin is the first one in the office, as always. But today is different; he searches for their agents, for anyone who's still alive.  
Then he sweeps up broken glass, both metaphorically and literally.  
He doesn't touch Arthur's office.

And it remains that way until Harry gets home. Harry who has been such a lucky bastard. Lucky as in the bullet grazed his brain, caused life-threatening swelling, cost him so much blood and months of consciousness. But it didn't kill him.  
He stays in America until he's discharged and flown back home. Later Harry tells him that Eggsy had had a death-grip on Harry's sleeve the whole time. Merlin has seen Harry get shot at, stabbed, choked, been in a coma, or two (or 8), but he's never seen him so weak.  
His limbs tremble from exhaustion, his skin is almost as pale as his white shirt. There's a weariness that is new and frightening. Harry had been composed all the time that Merlin knew him. Close to 30 years.

Eggsy wheels Harry to Merlin. Merlin says "Welcome home."  
Harry merely smiles exhausted.

Eggsy gets the silent message that they need to be alone.  
"Pick me up in an hour," Harry suggests and Eggsy nods fiercely.  
Merlin takes over and pushes Harry's wheelchair to Arthur's office. He can't do it alone.

It's eerily the same. As if Arthur could walk in, greet them and launch into a mission brief. As if he could pour a glass of brandy for each of them, commend them on their success. Ask about Merlin's latest gadget. Smile with that paternal condescension, but with fondness when Merlin tells him what else they managed to cram into the cufflinks or when Hary asks why he can't have a sword in his umbrella next to the other wonders of technology.

"He recruited me straight out of university," Merlin begins. "I graduated early, I was 17 and the world had so many offers." He smiles sadly. "I never regretted, not a single day.  
Back when he was Mordred, he... he was imposing. I have never been close to my parents, really, but..." he takes off his glasses and rubs his hand over is face.

"I was three," Harry offers. Everyone had known that Galahad and Arthur had been more than fellow agents. Galahad had always been his favorite. Harry can snark, and Arthur would grin. Call him 'old man' and only receive a 'cheeky boy' in return. They're both Kingsman, professionally, polite, but when Arthur talked to Galahad, there had been warmth involved. No one had known if there had been a special reason, just Arthur's eccentric fondness, they guessed.  
"My family was assassinated. The car was burning, and my parents were dead, but Arthur...Mordred opened the door and took me away. I don't remember much except the flames and his face. He saved me, Merlin. And he stayed. I know now that protocol would have been to hand me off to the ambulance and leave, but he didn't leave me."  
Merlin is silent, he listens and watches as Harry lightly strokes his finger over the table surface.  
"I was put up for adoption, given a new identity and name. He didn't choose me, but Kingsman still approached me for Galahad's title. Naturally, I passed. Lancelot had been my mentor, but I wanted to make Arthur proud. It was for him, all of it."  
There's a small pause. Aphasia, Merlin thinks. Words get scrambled, mislaid.  
"I ..." his shoulders tremble, Merlin steps closer. "I miss him, Merlin."  
He looks into tearfilled eyes and Harry starts to sob. He bends down to Harry who throws his arms around his neck and cries into his shoulder. He himself weeps silently.  
They both lost Arthur. Even if he was a betrayer, offering them up for death, spitting on everything they ever did...to them he was still Arthur.  
Their father.

When Eggsy returns, their tears have dried. But the hole that Arthur left behind - gaping, raw and feeling so wrong, remains.


End file.
